


High on What?!

by badwolfchild



Series: Boredom [8]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Families of Choice, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 05:56:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13288410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfchild/pseuds/badwolfchild
Summary: Neal's acting weird this morning, weirder than normal. Peter is about to get to the bottom of this mystery.





	High on What?!

Diana, who came in early to catch up on paperwork, looks up to see Neal walk off the elevator and to say he was acting strange would be an understatement. He has his arms crossed and he keeps subtly having his eyes darting around the room as if he’s waiting for something to happen. His hands are in white knuckled fists, and she can see that they are shaking a bit. As he gets closer she also notices that there are bags under his eyes and that they are bloodshot.

 

"Hey, Caffrey." She greets him cautiously.

 

That startles him, but he tries to hide it and nods in greeting, giving her a weak smile. Diana, getting a little worried about the out of character CI who is usually always cool under pressure, gets up and heads straight to Peter's office. Knocking on his open door she pokes her head in.

 

"Hey, boss, you got a minute?"

 

Peter looks up from his computer. "Sure, what's up?"

 

Diana closes the door and walks closer to his desk. "I was just wondering, has Neal... um, do you know if," Diana stutters, suddenly unsure how to phrase this.

 

"Do I know if Neal has ever done what?" Peter prompts his agent to speak.

 

"Do you know if Neal has ever done drugs?" She finally spits out.

 

Peter is speechless for a moment. Then he starts to laugh. "Neal? We are thinking of the same Neal, right? He's the last person I'd know to be doing drugs."

 

"I know, and I thought the same thing until I just saw him a second ago."

 

Peter sobers up instantly. "Why? What's wrong with him?"

 

"Well-" Diana starts to explain, but is cut off by a scream. The two run out of the office and look down at the bullpen. Everyone is staring at Neal, who is no longer sitting where Diana left him, but is backed up against the wall behind his desk. He’s shaking more and is staring at Jones with wide eyes.

 

"Sorry, man. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

 

Neal takes a deep breath and tries to get his trembling under control. "It's fine. I'm fine."

 

"Neal!" He jumps again at Peter's voice. Looking over at the balcony, he sees him give him the double finger point. "My office." He continues in a calmer voice and Neal nods. Peter turns to Diana. "Thanks for telling me about this and could you-"

 

"-keep the theory to myself? Already planned to."

 

"It's like you read my mind." He turns to Neal who just arrived. "Come on, kid." Putting a hand on his shoulder, he leads the shaking young man into his office and shuts the door. He tells him to sit down, but Neal just shakes his head. "No you don't want to sit, or no you can't sit?" Peter asks.

 

Neal starts to pace back and forth restlessly. "No, I just don't feel like sitting."

 

"Then at least stand still." Peter grabs his shoulders and holds him still. Looking a little closer he notices something about his eyes. "Neal, why are your eyes dilated?"

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"Neal, you once told me you never lied to me and I want you to remember that when you answer my next question."

 

"Okay?"

 

"Neal," Peter takes a deep breath. "Are you doing drugs?"

 

"What, god no Peter, why would you think-"

 

"Kiddo, I'm not mad if you are. I just want you to know you can tell me anything. Or you can talk to someone else if you’re not comfortable talking to me-"

 

Neal shrugs the older man's hands off his shoulders and backs up. "Peter, out of everyone, why would you ever think I'm on drugs?!"

 

"Well, let's see, you can't focus on one thing for more than two seconds before your eyes dart to another part of the room, they're bloodshot, you haven't stopped shaking once. Neal-"

 

Neal growls and runs his hands through his hair. "Peter, please listen to me!" He then points to himself. "I'm. Not. High! I've never been high in my life, and I've never even  _ thought _ about getting high!"

 

Peter’s starting to lose his patience. "Neal, I don't want you to start lying to me now. Please just tell me the truth."

 

Neal scoffs and brushes past Peter. Peter grabs him by the crook of the arm and notices that his pulse is much faster than normal. "Where do you think you're going?"

 

Neal yanks his arm out of the other's grip and storms out of the office. He runs down the stairs and stops at Peter's voice at the top of the stairs. "Neal! Answer me this instant!"

 

Neal spins around and glares. "Why should I tell you? You're just gonna claim it's a lie! Just check my stupid tracker!" With that he storms off to the elevator and slips in right as the door closes.

 

Peter goes to follow, but stops when Hughes yells for him. "Burke! My office!" Peter swears under his breath and follows after his boss. Hughes sits back down behind his desk while Peter choose to stand. "Now, what's going on with Caffrey?"

 

"Sir, to tell you the truth, I have no idea."

 

"Listen, Peter, I know the two of you have been getting closer recently, but I can't have him going off the hinge like that. You need to start controlling your CI or I'm going to have no choice but to reassign him to another handler or worst yet, send him back for the remainder of his sentence."

 

Peter does a double-take. "You can't do that."

 

"And I don't want to, but that cannot happen again. I want you to go put a stop to it now."

 

"Does that mean?"

 

Hughes nods. "Go after him, Peter."

 

Peter releases the breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. "Thank you, sir." He leaves the office and jogs over to Diana. "Can you-"

 

"He's at Central Park. It looks like he's on the shore of The Pond. He hasn't moved for a while now."

 

"Thanks, call me if he moves."

 

Diana nods. "Got it, boss."

 

~line break~

 

Peter parks at the edge of Central Park and walks to the small lake. Looking around for about five minutes, he finally spots someone in a nice suit sitting at the edge of the lake. His head keeps drooping as if he’s falling asleep and it looks like the only thing keeping him awake is the movement from him throwing pebbles into the water. Peter can hear the little plops as the pebbles land in the water.

 

He creeps up to him, still going unnoticed, and speaks quietly to announce his presence. "Hey, buddy," He puts his hand on the other's shoulder and crouches down to his level. The second he does that, Neal screams and throws a fist while spinning around. Peter grabs his fist with ease, but loses his balance and falls backwards, pulling Neal's arm with him. "Whoa, calm down, it's just me!"

 

"Peter? Is that you?" Peter sits up and studies Neal. The bags under his eyes are a lot more noticeable and he keeps blinking, trying to focus his sight or to just stay awake, Peter isn't quite sure which, or if it’s a mix of the two. His pulse is slowing down from what he can tell from holding Neal's wrist.

 

"Damn, kid." He mutters under his breath. "What's wrong with you?"

 

Neal snatches his hand back and turns around. "Why should I tell you? You're just-"

 

"Don't start that again." Peter scoots up next to him.

 

"You're the one that doesn't trust me." Neal wraps his arms around his legs and rests his chin on his knees.

 

"Well, you've been acting more paranoid than Mozzie all morning. If you have an explanation for that that doesn't involve drugs I'd love to hear it."

 

"Will you not jump to conclusions?"

 

Peter lifts his hand and runs it through Neal's hair. He then pulls the kid to him and wraps an arm around him, running his hand up and down his arm. "I promise I will not jump to any conclusions."

 

"Well, it all started when Moz came over last night-"

 

Peter interrupts him with a groan. "It all started with Mozzie. Why am I not surprised."

 

"Anyway," He continues with his story. "He told me about this game he found called Slender."

 

"Slender as in Slender Man from those old folk-lord tales?"

 

"The same. You go around a forest in the middle of the night looking for eight pages before he gets you. You only have a limited amount of time because your flashlight slowly dims and once it goes out-"

 

"-He gets you?"

 

"Yep. I thought it would be easy, but looks are deceiving. I was up the whole night trying to beat it."

 

"That explains why you can barely keep your eyes open and the paranoia, but that still doesn't explain why you were shaking, your eyes being dilated, and you couldn't sit still earlier."

"Well, I was getting really tired around two a.m. so instead of going to bed-"

 

"Like a normal person." Neal elbows him and he grunts. "Sorry, I'm done."

 

"Like I was saying, I didn't want to sleep so I may have had a couple of Monsters from the drug store on the corner."

 

Peter squints. "And how many is 'a couple'?"

 

"Now, remember what you said back in the office about not getting mad." Neal tries to cushion the blow.

 

"How many?" Peter asks firmly.

 

"Um, four-ish?" He whispers.

 

"Four- _ ish _ ? How much is 'ish' in that brain of yours?" Peter lightly taps his head.

 

"About three quarters of the can. Are you mad? Because-"

 

"No, I said I wouldn't get mad." Neal relaxes, but stiffens when Peter continues. "I'm upset, annoyed, flabbergasted, disappointed. But no, I'm not mad. What the hell were you thinking?! I'm surprised your heart didn't explode! Do you know how bad for you those are?!"

 

Neal shrinks into Peter. "I know, I know-" His voice comes out muffled.

 

"Then why in the world did you do it?" Peter asks, calmer this time.

 

"I don't know, I wasn't thinking."

 

"There's one thing we agree on." Peter sighs and just holds Neal to him for a couple of minutes. His breathing starts to even out and he goes lax against Peter. "Hey," He shakes him. "I don't mind you sleeping on me, but I cross the line to you sleeping in the park."

 

"But I'm  _ really  _ tired," Neal moans. "And my head hurts."

 

"That's because you're crashing big time. Come on," Peter stands up and pulls Neal with him. "You are not going back to the office like this. Satchmo would be more helpful than you in this condition."

 

Neal groans. "This is worse than being hungover."

 

Peter chuckles and puts his hand on the back his neck to lead him to the car, and to make sure he doesn’t fall over. "I bet, kiddo." They reach the car quickly and Neal leans his head against the cool glass inside.

 

"Hey, Peter?"

 

Peter hums in acknowledgement as he turns to check for cars before turning onto the main road.

 

"I have a confession to make. Back at the office I did lie about one thing."

 

Peter glances at him. "And that would be?"

 

"I may have, once when I was fifteen, gotten high."

 

"You've done drugs? You? What was it?" Peter tries to stay calm, but is failing miserably at it. 

"It was weed and it was one time. Mozzie caught me and I got in  _ so _ much trouble."

 

"Remind me to thank him for at least keeping you off drugs. And if we're making confessions right now, but first, what you hear in this car, stays in this car. Are we clear on that?"

 

"Yeah?" Neal smiles a little and lifts his head up.

 

"I, may have, smoked weed  _ once _ my freshmen year in college."

 

"Peter!" Neal exclaims in shock. "You?! Mr. Straight-lace, never broken a rule in his life, smoked pot?! Because I happen to know that that is an illegal controlled substance."

"Hey!" Peter holds up one finger. "It was one time and I never did it again!"

 

"So I was right, you were wild when you were nineteen!"

 

"I thought you had a headache?"

 

Neal refuses to reply to that and turns his head to look out the window. "Hey, why are we going to your place?" He deflects.

 

"Because, I am going to work from there and make sure you sleep."

 

Neal scoffs. "I don't need a babysitter."

 

Peter pretends to think for a second. "Um, In case that Monster caused some memory loss and you've forgotten everything that has happened, yes, you do."

 

"What about your case files?"

 

"Going to call Diana as soon as we get back and ask her to bring them over."

 

"But-"

 

"Nope, sorry Neal. You're not getting out of this one."

 

Neal sighs and hits his head against the window.

 

~line break~

 

As soon as they get home and Peter unlocks the door, he shoves Neal lightly towards the stairs. "Go get changed." He then pulls out his phone and calls Diana.

 

She answers on the second ring. _ "Hey, boss, I'm assuming you have him?" _

 

"Yeah, and the good news is he is not on drugs, so I dodged a bullet there."

 

_ "Then what was wrong?" _

 

"He decided to pull an all-nighter and get hyped up on some energy drink. He's crashed now and I don't want to leave him alone. Can you do me a favor and bring me my case files to work from home?"

 

_ "Sure thing, need anything else?" _

 

"Nope. Thanks so much, Diana, you're a lifesaver."

 

_ "No problem. See you in twenty."  _ She hangs up and Peter sighs.

 

He goes upstairs and knocks on Neal's door. "Hey, buddy?" He pokes his head in and smiles. Neal had managed to get into his PJ's, but didn't quite make it under the covers. He has one arm under his pillow and the other over Satchmo who has decided to take a nap curled up to one of his favorite people. Peter grabs one of the blankets that was draped on the chair in the room and puts it over the two. He then turns off the light and shuts the door.

 

Going downstairs, he collapses on the couch and grabs the paper. Turning it to the sports section, he reads while waiting for Diana.

 

~line break~

 

Fifteen minutes later there’s a knock on his door and he opens it to find Diana holding a box of files. "Hey, is Princess upstairs?"

 

Peter steps aside to let her in and nods. "Out like a light." Diana chuckles and sets the box down on the coffee table. "Come with me, you gotta see this." Peter almost sounds giddy as he leads her upstairs.

 

Peter slowly opens the door to Neal’s room, but doesn't turn on the light. Diana is shocked, considering she’s so used to seeing Neal with all his shields up. At some point, he had curled closer to Satch and has his head laying on top of the dog and has wrapped his other arm around him.

 

Peter closes the door again and leans against it.

 

"He looks so," Diana struggles to find the right word.

 

"Young?" Peter guesses.

 

"Yeah." Peter leads her downstairs. "Not exactly the face of a hardened criminal."

 

"It's hard to believe he was able to avoid the FBI for six years." Diana points out and opens the door. "See ya tomorrow boss."

 

"Bye, and thanks again."

 

Peter shuts the door and gets to work on the couch.

 

~line break~

 

Neal comes shuffling down the stairs with a blanket wrapped around him. "Is that pizza I smell?"

 

"Yep, it should be ready in a couple of minutes." Peter finishes typing something on his laptop.

 

Neal collapses next to him on the couch and uses him to sit upright. "Yay, cardboard pizza."

 

Peter sets the laptop down on the coffee table. "If you don't want pizza I'm pretty sure I have a can of deviled ham open in the fridge." 

Neal yawns and makes a face. "The flavored cardboard is good."

 

"Glad I was able to satisfy your delicate taste buds." The oven dings and Peter ruffles his hair while getting up. Neal just lays down where Peter was. He must have dosed off because the next thing he knows he’s being shaken awake by Peter. "Come on, up. You have to eat something and I need to sit down."

 

Neal sits up and looks at the coffee table. There’s a plate with a piece of pizza on it. Next to it is a glass of orange juice while Peter has a beer in his hand. "Why do I have to have juice while you get a beer?" He asks, but still drinks the juice.

 

"Yes, because I'm going to give alcohol to someone that nearly ODed on energy drinks this morning."

 

Neal starts to eat his pizza and rolls his eyes. "Okay. No need for the sarcasm. What time is it anyway?"

 

"About five. Now would you care to explain why you pulled a stunt that even most seventeen year olds would consider stupid?"

 

Neal places the empty plate, except for the crust, down on the coffee table and folds his legs up on the couch. He pauses and studies the blanket, picking at a loose thread. After a couple of moments he starts to speak slowly, picking his words carefully. "Because it  _ is _ something seventeen year olds do, staying up all night playing a cool game. When I was seventeen, I was pretending to be some twenty-one year old and had to deal with stuff that adults worry about."

 

Peter starts to put the pieces together. "You never got the chance to be a teenager and get to do the average stuff like playing video games." He guesses and Neal nods. Peter pulls him close and sighs. "I can't imagine not being able to just goof off as a teenager."

 

"I can't imagine you as a teenager period." Neal throws in with a smirk and Peter gives a mock glare. The door unlocks and Elizabeth walks in, interrupting the two.

 

"Hon, are you home? I saw the car outside. Oh, hi Neal, are you feeling alright?" El comes in and immediately starts to mother hen him.

 

Peter answers for him. "This one decided it would be a good idea to have about five energy drinks at two in the morning."

 

El gasps and looks to Neal. "I was playing a game." He gives his kicked puppy look to her.

 

She’s quiet for a second. "Was it that slender game Mozzie was telling me about?" She sounds angry and Neal nods. "How far did you get? Because I was only able to get three pages." Both Neal and Peter look up sharply and look confused. She shrugs. "What? He had me play it and it was fun."

 

Peter rolls his eyes and Neal grins. "I had seven out of the eight pages and I  _ saw _ the last one in the distance and then he got me!"

 

Peter shakes his head and gets up as the two continue to trade stories. El takes his seat and he takes the plates to the kitchen. When he comes back the duo are on his computer. "What are you two doing?" He asks suspiciously.

They look up and try to give the most innocent faces. "Peter, if you just give it a try-" Neal tries to speak.

 

"No." He closes the laptop shut and Neal groans. Peter grabs his arm and pulls him up. "To the table with you, I want you to eat some more."

 

"But, Peter, I don't want any more cardboard. I already ate a piece."

 

"Too bad. This is the first real food you've probably had in the last twenty-four hours and I want you to at least eat another slice." Neal is being dragged to the table and he looks back at Elizabeth.

 

'Help me.' He mouths, but she just laughs and shakes her head.

 

'Sorry.' She mouths back. He sighs and lets himself be sat at the table.

 

"You know, Peter, I don't think this counts as real food." The two keep up their light banter up until they go to watch TV at which point El cuts in and threatens them both to shut up so they get quiet real fast.

 

~line break~

 

In the morning, Neal comes down in his suit and sits down next to Peter at the table with a relaxed sigh. Peter sets down the paper and studies Neal. "You look better." He comments.

 

"I feel better. I think all of it is out of my system now."

 

"Good, you have enough energy as it is. You do not need the help of energy drinks for that."

 

El walks up behind him from the kitchen and sets a plate in front of him. "Hi sweetie." She then walks around the table and sits down across from the boys with her own food. They all start to eat and El keeps looking at Peter to say something. Peter refuses to and is silently giving El the 'no you do it' look. Neal swallows and watches unnoticed as the two have their silent argument.

 

"Will one of you speak already?" Neal asks when he realizes they’re going to be here all day at the rate they are going.

 

"Well," El speaks first. " Peter and I talked last night and well, honey tell him what we thought of."

 

Peter chokes slightly and swallows. "Um, well, we were thinking, if you want to you don't have to, that you could," Peter starts to trail off.

 

Neal’s starting to get impatient. "Words, Peter, use your words."

 

He rushes out the next part. "That you can sleep over once a week." He then slows down as he explains. "You could keep clothes here and like on a Friday you could come here with me after work and go home on Saturday afternoon or something. That way if you feel the need to be an idiot again, which we all know you're going to do something stupid at some point, we'll be around."

 

Peter finishes and tries to study Neal's face, but it’s completely unreadable. After a couple minutes later Neal speaks slowly, unsure of what to stay. "So, would that include Elizabeth's cooking and if she's not here we get take-out?" He then breaks into a smile. "Because that pizza was really bad." Peter rolls his eyes and takes his plate up.

 

"Don't worry about that," El then stage whispers. "I hated that pizza too."

 

Peter glares. "Traitor. Neal, go get ready for work, you have a lot to catch up on since you were sleeping away the day yesterday."

 

Neal turns around in his seat to look at Peter. "I just have one condition." Peter sets down the kitchen towel and gives Neal his full attention.

 

"And that is?"

 

"You have to play-"

 

Peter cuts him off when he realizes what Neal is going to say. "I'm not playing that stupid game."

 

"But, Peter, you have to, just once-"

 

Peter stands his ground. "No. Now go get ready."

 

Neal sighs and does as he’s told. Peter turns back to the sink and El comes up and hugs him from behind. "You can't just try it?"

 

"Not you too." Peter groans and turns around in her arms. "I don't want to play that silly game."

 

El pouts. "Please? It was his only condition and he has his mind set on this." She kisses him and gives him puppy eyes that rivals that of Neal's.

 

He sighs. "Fine.  _ One time _ , that's it."

 

She grins and kisses him. "Thank you!"

 

Neal comes in with his messenger bag. "Really? Get a room."

 

Peter just walks past him. "My house, these  _ are _ my rooms. Plus I'm playing that stupid game of yours so be good or I'll change my mind."

 

Neal looks at El in shock. "Okay, how did you do that?"

 

El just smiles knowingly and leaves. Neal looks to Peter speechless. "That's why I married her." He simply says and guides Neal to the door.

 

In the car Peter picks up the conversation from earlier. "So, I'm assuming it's a yes."

 

"Your offer? Yeah, it'd be cool. But, Peter just answer me one question."

 

"I already said yes to playing your game."

 

Neal gives a mock glare. "Not that. Why are you letting me stay over? And don't give me that BS answer you did before."

 

"The thing is Neal, that wasn't a BS answer." Neal gives a confused look and Peter clarifies. "We really do want you to be able to just let go once in a while. Also-"

 

"I knew it!"

 

"No, listen, this is serious." Neal nods and sobers up. Peter continues. "After your big exit yesterday morning Hughes told me something."

 

"What?"

 

"You can't be popping off like that. I know you're rarely like that, but he said if it does happen again they're either going to find you a new handler or," Peter lets it hang there, but Neal finishes for him.

 

"Or I'm back inside?" Peter nods and Neal sighs. "Then I guess I have to behave now."

 

"Good guess, kid. Although you should already be behaving." Peter glances at him.

 

He shrugs and smirks. "Then behave better." He amends. "Or just be better at not getting caught." Peter shakes his head with a smile and reaches over blindly to pat his shoulder. 

 

"Why don't you just stick with the first plan there, buddy."

 

"We'll see."

 

Peter has a bad feeling about that. At least now he can keep an eye on him once a week.


End file.
